Devonian rise in atmospheric oxygen correlated to the radiations of terrestrial plants and large predatory fish

Dahl, Tais W.; Hammarlund, Emma U.; Anbar, Ariel D.; Bond, David P.G.; Gill, Benjamin C.; Gordon, Gwyneth W.; Knoll, Andrew H.; Nielsen, Arne Thorshøj; Schovsbo, Niels H.; Canfield, Donald E.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1011287107

Cited by 370 publications

(271 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Taking this approach, even our most δ 98/95 Mo-enriched value of 0.95‰ is the most δ 98/95 Mo-depleted for any euxinic environment following the GOE (45)(46)(47) (Fig. S1).…”

Section: Relative Oxygenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth’s atmosphere

Canfield

Ngombi-Pemba

Hammarlund

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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123

139

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The oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere has varied greatly through time, progressing from exceptionally low levels before about 2.3 billion years ago, to much higher levels afterward. In the absence of better information, we usually view the progress in Earth's oxygenation as a series of steps followed by periods of relative stasis. In contrast to this view, and as reported here, a dynamic evolution of Earth's oxygenation is recorded in ancient sediments from the Republic of Gabon from between about 2,150 and 2,080 million years ago. The oldest sediments in this sequence were deposited in well-oxygenated deep waters whereas the youngest were deposited in euxinic waters, which were globally extensive. These fluctuations in oxygenation were likely driven by the comings and goings of the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion, the longest-lived positive δ 13 C excursion in Earth history, generating a huge oxygen source to the atmosphere. As the Lomagundi event waned, the oxygen source became a net oxygen sink as Lomagundi organic matter became oxidized, driving oxygen to low levels; this state may have persisted for 200 million years.GOE | Paleoproterozoic | marine chemistry | Mo isotope | trace metal

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“…Taking this approach, even our most δ 98/95 Mo-enriched value of 0.95‰ is the most δ 98/95 Mo-depleted for any euxinic environment following the GOE (45)(46)(47) (Fig. S1).…”

Section: Relative Oxygenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the heaviest δ 98/95 Mo values are usually assumed to best reflect the seawater composition (45)(46)(47). In the modern oceans, the balance between oxic and anoxic removal pathways yields a seawater δ 98/95 Mo value of 2.3‰, the highest known in Earth history.…”

Section: Relative Oxygenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth’s atmosphere

Canfield

Ngombi-Pemba

Hammarlund

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

123

139

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“…0.65 Gyr (Kah and Bartley, 2011;Och and Shields-Zhou, 2012;Planavsky et al, 2014b), but the deep ocean may not have become permanently oxygenated until the rise of land plants in the Devonian (Dahl et al, 2010;Sperling et al, 2015; but see Chen et al, 2015, for an alternative view).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of Earth's biogeochemical nitrogen cycle

Stüeken

Kipp

Koehler

et al. 2016

Earth-Science Reviews

326

287

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Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for all life on Earth and it acts as a major control on biological productivity in the modern ocean. Accurate reconstructions of the evolution of life over the course of the last four billion years therefore demand a better understanding of nitrogen bioavailability and speciation through time. The biogeochemical nitrogen cycle has evidently been closely tied to the redox state of the ocean and atmosphere. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that the Earth"s surface has passed in a non-linear fashion from an anoxic state in the Hadean to an oxic state in the later Phanerozoic. It is therefore likely that the nitrogen cycle has changed markedly over time, with potentially severe implications for the productivity and evolution of the biosphere. Here we compile nitrogen isotope data from the literature and review our current understanding of the evolution of the nitrogen cycle, with particular emphasis on the Precambrian. Combined with recent work on redox conditions, trace metal availability, sulfur and iron cycling on the early Earth, we then use the nitrogen isotope record as a platform to test existing and new hypotheses about biogeochemical pathways that may have controlled nitrogen availability through time. Among other things, we conclude that (a) abiotic nitrogen sources were likely insufficient to sustain a large biosphere, thus favoring an early origin of biological N 2 fixation, (b) evidence of nitrate in the Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic confirm current views of increasing surface oxygen levels at those times, (c) abundant ferrous iron and sulfide in the midPrecambrian ocean may have affected the speciation and size of the fixed nitrogen reservoir, and (d) nitrate availability alone was not a major driver of eukaryotic evolution.

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“…On the basis of a Mo-based geochemical proxy calibrated to the fossil record of fish, Dahl et al argued that oxygen levels in the early Paleozoic were 15-50% of present atmospheric levels (PAL) and probably no more than a few percent PAL for the previous 2 billion years (1). It is an interesting result, but the study raised a number of issues.…”

mentioning

confidence: 81%

Was the Devonian radiation of large predatory fish a consequence of rising atmospheric oxygen concentration?

Butterfield

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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On the basis of a Mo-based geochemical proxy calibrated to the fossil record of fish, Dahl et al. argued that oxygen levels in the early Paleozoic were 15-50% of present atmospheric levels (PAL) and probably no more than a few percent PAL for the previous 2 billion years (1). It is an interesting result, but the study raised a number of issues.First, it is difficult to reconcile 15-50% PAL oxygen with the presence of Silurian charcoal, when ≈62% PAL oxygen is necessary to sustain wildfire (2).Second, the correlation between the Devonian radiation of large predatory fish and modeled oxygen rise is not corroborated by contemporaneous molluscan or arthropod records, which exhibit maximum body sizes before the Devonian; or by the collective decreases in maximum body size of chordates, molluscs, and arthropods in the later Paleozoic (figure 2 in ref.3). Dahl et al. argued that fish are more sensitive to reduced oxygen levels than-for example-bivalves, polychaetes, and crustaceans, but this is to confuse ecologically imposed safety factors with the physiological limits of the fish bodyplan itself. Relatively small benthic organisms are inherently more vulnerable to localized anoxia than pelagic fish and necessarily take on the corresponding adaptations; bottom-dwelling fish are as hypoxia tolerant as most benthic invertebrates (4).Third, the mass-specific metabolic rate of teleost fish decreases with increasing body size-by an allometric factor of 0.79-0.88 (4). In other words, larger-bodied fish require exponentially less oxygen per unit body mass than smaller ones. It is true, of course, that large fish may require more absolute amounts of oxygen, but this is not an issue for motile organisms with actively pumped circulatory and respiratory systems. Indeed, it is smaller fish with higher mass-specific metabolic rates and more limited motility that are most likely to be challenged by oxygen availability.Last, the hypoxia tolerance data presented in Dahl et al.'s figure S7 [presumably drawn from the compilations of Gray et al. (2002) and Vaquer-Sunyer and Duarte (2008); see refs. 44 and 43, respectively, of ref. 1] do not support the claim that larger fish require higher oxygen concentrations than smaller ones. Apart from the conspicuous overrepresentation of benthic, estuarine, and/or air-breathing forms in all but the largest size ranks, it is important to appreciate that all of these data come from tank experiments using relatively small-bodied individuals. Because metabolic rates typically decrease exponentially with body size (4), the hypoxia tolerance of 1-to 2-m-long adults will be substantially lower than that depicted in figure S7.Oxygen-limitation hypotheses offer attractive Earth systemstype explanations for macroevolutionary phenomena but tend to assume that atmospheric oxygen is the only significant control on marine redox chemistry. If, however, there is an important biological contribution to ocean structure, then the fundamentally nonuniformitarian nature of Paleozoic and Proterozoic marine ecology m...

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Devonian rise in atmospheric oxygen correlated to the radiations of terrestrial plants and large predatory fish

Cited by 370 publications

References 46 publications

Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth’s atmosphere

Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth’s atmosphere

The evolution of Earth's biogeochemical nitrogen cycle

Was the Devonian radiation of large predatory fish a consequence of rising atmospheric oxygen concentration?

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